Odds and Ends — 2 December 2025
Cryptocurrency, Investing, Money, Economy, Business, AI, and Debt:
Poland’s president vetoes strict crypto bill, says it threatens ‘freedoms of Poles’
AI bubble a "key downside risk" to U.S. economy, OECD warns
PlayStation Goes Crypto? Sony Stablecoin Could Be Used for Gaming Payments
Coronavirus and Public Health:
Work Performance May Be Impaired Years After COVID
Politics:
https://twitter.com/broadwaybabyto/status/1995355549945278829
After World War II, Germany embraced pacifism as a form of atonement. Now the country is arming itself again.
https://twitter.com/cturnbull1968/status/1995325609870864450
Eleven Indiana Republicans Targeted in Swatting Attacks
At least 11 elected Republicans in Indiana have been the targets of swatting attacks and other threats in the weeks since President Donald Trump publicly pressured state lawmakers to approve a new congressional map that would benefit Republicans.
https://twitter.com/davidsirota/status/1995517585434235119
———— The DC Shooting ————
An Extended Political Messaging Stunt
The shooter (the man in custody is suspected of, but not proven to be, that person) is guilty of the attack and the carnage surrounding it. Donald Trump is responsible for them. This episode is the collateral damage of, downstream of, Trump abusing his powers as president.
———— Best MRI Ever ————
https://twitter.com/covie_93/status/1995497858393600366
https://twitter.com/ProjectLincoln/status/1995574844956836008
https://twitter.com/TomJChicago/status/1995573938567385100
https://twitter.com/MattMMPLS/status/1995619786970333261
https://twitter.com/NormOrnstein/status/1995595121426137247
https://twitter.com/TrueFactsStated/status/1995645119899619536
https://twitter.com/GovPressOffice/status/1995659642899497393
———— The Epstein Coverup ————
Dan Bongino Scrambles to Explain Epstein Files Redaction Email
———— Autocracy R Us ————
https://twitter.com/greggnunziata/status/1995256897922879954
https://twitter.com/kylegriffin1/status/1995680644836250108
https://twitter.com/nickreeves9876/status/1995137894583812310
https://twitter.com/BraddrofliT/status/1995595828065693772
———— Blatant In-Your-Face Corruption ————
https://twitter.com/LDS_Dems/status/1995201028724342822
Why the Gulf Monarchs Shower Trump With Gifts
Until Donald Trump, no U.S. president had ever yielded to royal temptations from abroad. But in his second term, Trump has discarded that old inhibition in its totality. Since 2022, the Trump family has been promised hundreds of millions of dollars—in the form of investments, real-estate licensing deals, even an airplane—from Gulf monarchies and the business entities they control.
During his second term, and especially during Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s recent visit to Washington, Trump has rewarded his benefactors with sweeping geopolitical favors. Their huge investments in his family’s businesses are hard to describe as anything other than the spectacular subversion of American sovereignty, wherein the nation’s foreign policy reads as a thank-you note to the president’s biggest financial boosters.
Really, Trump is adopting the governing style of his backers. In the Gulf states, hardly any distinction exists between public and private interests; the royal family governs the state and dominates the economy.
———— Putin&Krasnov vs. Ukraine ————
https://twitter.com/YourAnonCentral/status/1995468859411730463
https://twitter.com/JayinKyiv/status/1995476552860013047
https://twitter.com/JustAJaneJ/status/1995326145303064670
https://twitter.com/mhmck/status/1995297536702316732
———— Hegseth on the Rocks ————
https://twitter.com/AdamKinzinger/status/1995565740238508175
https://twitter.com/SkylineReport/status/1995216101916176546
White House confirms Hegseth authorized second strike on drug boat
https://twitter.com/Timodc/status/1995577732634476914
https://twitter.com/RadioFreeTom/status/1995591172367200729
https://twitter.com/acnewsitics/status/1995591939052437818
https://twitter.com/CalltoActivism/status/1995579852494459352
https://twitter.com/justinamash/status/1995588840225210437
A man with such contempt for the military should not run the Pentagon.
https://twitter.com/OfTheBraveUSA/status/1995607483961016730
https://twitter.com/PanasonicDX4500/status/1995587298306715842
https://twitter.com/samstein/status/1995645796612804964
Pete Hegseth, Moral Failure, and the Erosion of Military Legitimacy
After long periods of war or political strain, the greatest danger is not the enemy. It is the erosion of the values that distinguish the U.S. military from armed groups it confronts.
https://twitter.com/RonFilipkowski/status/1995654911913328837
———— Mors Imperii ————
https://twitter.com/BladeoftheS/status/1995275379972374777
How Trump Will Try to Mess with the Midterms
It’s become sort of a common lament by some on the left that there probably won’t even be elections in 2026, no less 2028, and thus American democracy is functionally over. This is not just doomerism, but uninformed doomerism; canceling elections just isn’t what modern autocrats do.
What Trump will try to do, rather, is make sure that the surge in Democratic voters that will likely show up won’t have much power to change things — that is, he’ll try to make elections matter less — and he’ll try to do so in a number of pernicious yet predictable ways.
https://twitter.com/JonLemire/status/1995465894751814087
Serendipity:
The People Outsourcing Their Thinking to AI
Rise of the LLeMmings
The Man Who Was Supposed to Kill Martin Luther King Jr.
For years, one man complicated the official story of who murdered the civil-rights leader. Just before he died in October, he offered a jaw-dropping revelation.
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That second strike will hang around Bradley's neck. He will be pardoned, no consequences for him. Everybody walks away without punishment.
Yeah, he appears to be the fall guy, for now at least. Doesn’t mean that a future Dem President won’t be tempted to put Hegseth on a plane bound for The Hague.